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Basic trends in sentence length and time served in Oklahoma corrections, 1900-1992.

Basic Trends in Sentence Length and Time Served in Oklahoma Corrections. 1900-1992
file:////maindc/users/gphillips/PDFs%2063/Basic%20trends.htm[5/25/2012 9:48:39 AM]
Basic Trends in Sentence Length and Time Served in Oklahoma
Corrections. 1900-1992
Michael D. Connelly
Philip D. Holley
Abstract
With crime control a continuing and growing priority on the public agenda across the nation, policymakers have come
to rely more on the traditional means of harsher sentences and imprisonment. Unfortunately, longer sentences and time
served must be met with more expenditures and facilities to handle the greater prison population. This does not always
happen, as demonstrated by the budgetary difficulties of departments of corrections throughout the nation.
Oklahoma is no exception to the national trend. It is widely accepted within Oklahoma corrections that the state's
prison population will climb to an untenable 24,000 by 2001 if current trends continue. This comes after a decade of
population doubling and current pressures on facilities and budgets. Even with the variety of noncustodial detention
and pre-parole programs being developed in Oklahoma in the 1980s to the present, the system seems unlikely to meet
future demands due to shortages of funds and facilities.
In 1993 state policymakers proposed various remedies. Senate Bill 565, the Prison Population Management Act,
authorizing earlier specialized supervision, was an explicit recognition of the "warehousing" problems of the
correctional system. On the other hand, House Bill 1249, the "truth-in-sentencing" bill, sought to increase the amount
of time served through fuller serving of shorter but more certain sentences. Senate Bill 467 authorized electronically
monitored home detention to deal with prison overcrowding, and the state budget provided for a minimum of 566 new
beds. Clearly, accurate information of sentencing and time served and of current and past trends, directions, and
comparisons with other correctional systems has become vital to any discussion of crime and its control.
To that end, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections contracted in spring 1993 for an analysis of trends in sentence
lengths and time served in its correctional system since 1900. Relatedly, it also sought investigation of recent patterns
in sentencing and time served on the federal level and in other states. This study represents the end product of that
contract, meeting those two requirements. Armed with a clearer picture of where Oklahoma currently is in its
sentencing and time served compared to its past or to other systems, state policymakers will be better able to shape
functional programs to meet the problem of crime control in a fiscally tight environment.
Methodology and Samples
The data used for this study came from two sets of sources. One source was the archives and current records of the
Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Three different data bases were derived from this source. First, for the period
1900-1909, a sample of 1,002 cases was drawn from an overall population of approximately 1,800 as kept in ledgers in
department archives. Given the time frame, in which correctional resources were only just beginning to be organized
and functional, this period is considered sufficiently different from the succeeding years to warrant separate
categorization as the "statehood" period in this report.
Second, for the period 1910-1979, data were kept on cards, in what state corrections officials called the "closed record
system," which were in the process of being computerized at the time of this study. The transfer of over 75 percent of
the almost 100,000 cases from the cards to computer records had been completed. All the cases, all 97,753 of them,
were downloaded for this research, but only those completed provided the bulk of the data used, 74,703 in all. As this
period well represents the time frame before many of the newer custodial and noncustodial programs came into effect,
these data will be presented as the "traditional" period data.
Third, for the period 1980-present, with its greater use of a wider range of programs, such as house arrest and pre-

Basic Trends in Sentence Length and Time Served in Oklahoma Corrections. 1900-1992
file:////maindc/users/gphillips/PDFs%2063/Basic%20trends.htm[5/25/2012 9:48:39 AM]
Basic Trends in Sentence Length and Time Served in Oklahoma
Corrections. 1900-1992
Michael D. Connelly
Philip D. Holley
Abstract
With crime control a continuing and growing priority on the public agenda across the nation, policymakers have come
to rely more on the traditional means of harsher sentences and imprisonment. Unfortunately, longer sentences and time
served must be met with more expenditures and facilities to handle the greater prison population. This does not always
happen, as demonstrated by the budgetary difficulties of departments of corrections throughout the nation.
Oklahoma is no exception to the national trend. It is widely accepted within Oklahoma corrections that the state's
prison population will climb to an untenable 24,000 by 2001 if current trends continue. This comes after a decade of
population doubling and current pressures on facilities and budgets. Even with the variety of noncustodial detention
and pre-parole programs being developed in Oklahoma in the 1980s to the present, the system seems unlikely to meet
future demands due to shortages of funds and facilities.
In 1993 state policymakers proposed various remedies. Senate Bill 565, the Prison Population Management Act,
authorizing earlier specialized supervision, was an explicit recognition of the "warehousing" problems of the
correctional system. On the other hand, House Bill 1249, the "truth-in-sentencing" bill, sought to increase the amount
of time served through fuller serving of shorter but more certain sentences. Senate Bill 467 authorized electronically
monitored home detention to deal with prison overcrowding, and the state budget provided for a minimum of 566 new
beds. Clearly, accurate information of sentencing and time served and of current and past trends, directions, and
comparisons with other correctional systems has become vital to any discussion of crime and its control.
To that end, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections contracted in spring 1993 for an analysis of trends in sentence
lengths and time served in its correctional system since 1900. Relatedly, it also sought investigation of recent patterns
in sentencing and time served on the federal level and in other states. This study represents the end product of that
contract, meeting those two requirements. Armed with a clearer picture of where Oklahoma currently is in its
sentencing and time served compared to its past or to other systems, state policymakers will be better able to shape
functional programs to meet the problem of crime control in a fiscally tight environment.
Methodology and Samples
The data used for this study came from two sets of sources. One source was the archives and current records of the
Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Three different data bases were derived from this source. First, for the period
1900-1909, a sample of 1,002 cases was drawn from an overall population of approximately 1,800 as kept in ledgers in
department archives. Given the time frame, in which correctional resources were only just beginning to be organized
and functional, this period is considered sufficiently different from the succeeding years to warrant separate
categorization as the "statehood" period in this report.
Second, for the period 1910-1979, data were kept on cards, in what state corrections officials called the "closed record
system," which were in the process of being computerized at the time of this study. The transfer of over 75 percent of
the almost 100,000 cases from the cards to computer records had been completed. All the cases, all 97,753 of them,
were downloaded for this research, but only those completed provided the bulk of the data used, 74,703 in all. As this
period well represents the time frame before many of the newer custodial and noncustodial programs came into effect,
these data will be presented as the "traditional" period data.
Third, for the period 1980-present, with its greater use of a wider range of programs, such as house arrest and pre-